Just a Mallrat Mindset
by Karianasan
Summary: Final Pairing! Shaggy and Daphne. Finally installment of the four pairs. Enjoy. SD Note: Shaggy knowing Origami is now cannon, thanks to Samurai Sword Movie!


"Thanks Mister Mc Nallie!"

Daphne shouted as she turned and walked out of the store. Where there is a Will, there is a way… and the way of the mall rat was that of sales and buying sprees. Waiting, buried under a growing pile of stuff was Shaggy. Having nothing to do back at home, and Scooby occupied with Velma helping her out, he had conned… er… convinced to come along to play pack mule. Plus, it had been a while since he got to hang out with Daphne, so he consented at the offer when she asked if he wanted to drive her to the mall. Better carrying bags then staying at home alone.

Plopping another bag on top of the various ones she had gotten earlier, Daphne pulled out a list from inside her purse. A pen quickly followed as she looked over the list. Her hand floated down the list as she began to speak aloud.

"Ok, Clothes shopping, Check check check." She said as she marked off on her list the three clothing stores they had hit earlier. Shaggy leaned back so she could see the colors of the bags at the bottom of the stack that were from those areas. Each had its own clear print of the stores name and colors to them, so it was easy to know which bag when to which store. The only trouble was making sure to show off the bags without toppling the ones that sat snugly on top of them.

"Pick up my dry cleaning?" She leaned over and looked as Shaggy turned and showed her the package that had been draped over his back. Peering over the list, she found where the box was and marked it off with another flourished checkmark of completion.

"Shoes?"

The beatnik shifted position yet again to show off the row of boxes that occupied a good chunk of space leaning against his midsection. Thankfully for Shaggy, the boxes were all uniformed size and were easy to stack upon each other. Sadly he was not as lucky with the rest, as some of the bottom boxes and bags on the bottom were not as uniformed making carrying them a skill in itself. Then again the crazy packing and skittering skills he had years of experience with certainly helped. Nothing was harder to carry then his friends all moving about in rush to get away from some said baddie in close chase behind him.

"Perfume?" Another check marked down and a pose out of Shaggy.

"Jewerly?..." "Birthday gift?..." "Wedding Present?" "Chocolates?" The checks went flying, and Shaggy looked like he was doing some awkward dance, making sure she saw the box or bag in question. It didn't last long, thankfully for the lanky man, but it was enough to send the guy into a short pant.

'Like… Got enough things Daph?" He questioned the red-head as she seemed to be chewing on the end of the pen in thought. Her eyes locked on the list like it was a set of clues that she needed to solve.

"Daaaaaa-phneeeee…" Shaggy whined in her general direction from behind the wall of stuff she had collected over the course of the day. His scruffy head peeking over one side of the collection so he was able to shoot his patented Puppy eyes look at her. The look though was wasted, since she had yet to look up at him. So he had to try again.

"Daph-neeeeee" He re-stressed her name, making it a bit louder in hopes she heard him this time. Pouring new levels of cuteness into his puppy eyed look as he cast it her way. It was now in the deadly lethality levels of cute, which would make his plight which ever it might be, almost one hundred percent accurate. Daphne though, was slow to fall into the trap that was waiting for her. She had been trying to make sure she had not missed anything, going over her checklist when she heard her name being called. The first she dismissed, but the second time was the charm. Looking up, she got hit with a full on blast of cuteness that could rot your teeth out in seconds.

"Wah! Put those away! What? What?" She pulled up her hands in mock shielding, waiting a few seconds before peeking through her fingers at him. He had been good, and put away his weapons of war and replaced it with a grin.

"Daphneee… Can we like' get something to eat now?" He pleaded, adding a tiny lip pout to add emphasis. A hand came up and covered his mouth, looking away for a second to compose herself. He was playing dirty and she knew it.

"Fine! Just stop looking so pathetic and hungry… You'll make me feel bad." Daphne said bringing her hand away and risking another look at him. But she had agreed so he didn't have to do anything more. With a sigh of resignation, she waved for him to follow.

'Dirty trick…" Daphne grumbled as she led the wall of stuff… well, and Shaggy behind it all to the food court. She could tell she was getting close as the growls of Shaggy's stomach could be heard behind her.

Like any proper mall, they had a huge food court area. Spanning a good chunk of the upper floor, the area had over fifteen to twenty different places to eat, and all sorts of foods from everywhere. From Old Fashioned Burgers, to Chinese food, and at least four different snack places as well. With the people who visited in mind, each of the sides of the long oval shaped food court had more elaborate eating sections. With the ceiling around the food court skylights, the sides each had umbrella's to offer shade, even if they were still indoors. Also, the tables were much bigger, so it was easy to set aside the boxes and have plenty of room for the amount of food Shaggy likes to eat.

"Hm… So many options to choose from." Daphne commented, peeking into her purse. A hand blocked her view as she looked up confusedly at Shaggy who had come over.

"My treat." He grinned down at her. When it came to food, he was a downright gentleman. He lightly pushed her purse down, and nodded in the way of the food.

"What are you in the mood for?"

Putting away her purse, she placed a hand to her chin in thought. "Hmm…" She scanned over all the shops she could see where they had found a place to sit. Sure, she couldn't see them all, but it was enough of a variety for her to be able to find something she would want. Now… just being able to narrow it down was the hard part.

After long span of time, Daphne's own stomach was urging her to pick something. Shaggy in the mean time just waited patiently, seeming to already have in mind what kind of food he wanted. And this time Scooby wasn't going to show up and just eat his food. So he would be able to eat how much and what he wanted. A rarity he was going to take full advantage of.

"Alright! I know what I want." A hand came up with a finger pointed in decision. "Two Chicken Quesadilla's, and a side salad. And can you get me a LARGE pile of fries from that burger place? And a large Coke? I'm thirsty."

Shaggy laughed, it seemed at first she was eating a healthy diet until she went for the large fries and the big drink. He actually sighed in relief. He had heard that it's the new fad to eat such little portions of food and wasn't sure if Daphne agreed with them since it had been a while since they had a meal just the two of them. That and she didn't really need to watch what she ate on a case, since there was an over hundred percent chance they would be working it off anyway. Wither it was being chased, chasing someone else, or just spending the day walking around some dank and dusty house.

Giving a salute, Shaggy was off to get their food.

Daphne was then left alone to argue with her growling stomach for company. She figured she would be alone for a while, since Shaggy wasn't going to rush to bring back the food, until he found everything he wanted. She chuckled at the thought, since he would probably end up walking back with just as much food as she had gotten stuff earlier. Looking over at the stuff, she noticed a price tag that sat with big bold letters on the price. Having more humility then advertising her expensive purchases, she cut off the tag and went over to throw it out.

_**SNAP**_

Coming to the trash bin, her heel of her one shoe gave out. Unlike her shoes she used in cases that were steel re-enforced on the insides, her normal shoes were less sturdy. That and part of the reason she had went on the trip to the mall was to get a new pair to replace the ones she had on. She just didn't expect them to break this soon. Staggering the tiny bit left to the trash, she tossed the garbage before leaning over to pick up the ruined heel.

"Stupid thing, Unreliable hunk of…."

As she was lecturing the broken heel, a voice broke into her sentence to interrupt what she had been about to say.

"Oh baby… I might be a Hunk, but I am definitely more reliable then that."

The husky voice that interrupted belonged to a man who was now heading in her direction. He was taller then Daphne, and had the build of an athlete. Not too big, but lean and seemingly enough in shape. He oozed a cocky attitude, in his swaggered stance and large 'I-own-the-world' grin on his face. A whistle came from the man as he looked at Daphne. His eyes seemed to take a long trip up and down her, taking in every detail. As he looked her over, he seemed to spawn lesser men behind him. They were dressed similarly as the cocky man sizing Daphne up, appearing to be his gang. They moved in quickly to surround her, so she wasn't getting away from them. A pompous sneer seemed to grow across his face as he liked what he saw.

"My names Thomas… Thomas McPraide. But baby you can call me Gorgeous." He ran a hand through his thick raven locks, brushing it to one side in a move that he had to have seen one to many bad romance movies to master. Daphne was stunned. She had a lot of experience of the strange and weird over the years, but she forgot how sad some people could be. He was in a way… Frightening. Not in the kind that she dealt with on a regular basis, but the fact that there were people who still existed and used these rather pathetic pick up lines… And actually seemed to have the whole hearted belief they ACTUALLY worked.

"I know… I do that sometimes." He oozed in confidence, taking her silence as something that he had done. He was certainly the cause, but not in the manner he was thinking in his over inflated ego's imagination. "I create feelings in others that they themselves don't understand."

Daphne was now having a hard time not laughing. With a hand over her mouth, she fought the feeling that was bubbling up inside of her. Her whole face was red with the effort, chewing on her lip trying to not let it get past. This, which Thomas took the wrong way and only added to his macho mentality.

"Look boys… She's having such a hard time holding back herself. She is madly in love with me." Daphne nearly choked on a snort. As funny as he was, she was not letting this get any further. Taking her hands away from her mouth, she tried to march forward when she forgot her heel was still broken and fell into the hands on one of the grease goons that followed Thomas.

"She's really pretty boss." A nearby man had commented over to Thomas.  
"Yeah boss…" Came another.  
"Got a real 'catch' here." Said the one who had actually caught her, Daphne rolled her eyes and pulled to try to get away, but was not having much luck since she was down one point of leverage from the broken heel.

"Such a cute little kitten…" Thomas Purred as he came up to her, running a hand down the side of her face.

**_CHOMP!_**

Daphne was only going to stand just so much before she got pissed. With his finger in close range, she had turned her head sharply and sunk her teeth into his wandering finger. With a yelp, Thomas brought back the injured finger and shook it. But his cool was only momentarily broken.

"Ooooo… the kitten has some teeth on her." The goons chuckled as Thomas tried to hid the amount of pain Daphne had caused to his finger. Roughly grabbing her chin, he forced her to look at him.

"Quit struggling kitten..." Thomas said as Daphne's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You're mine now…"

There was a grunt out of one of Thomas' men as a blur of green and brown entered the inner area of the circle of goons. Having used the back and shoulders of one of the guys, Shaggy had spring boarded himself into the area for a flashy entrance. Though it might have been more impressive had Shaggy looked more intimidating then the slouched posture he adapted to his landing.

"You have no right to claim her." Shaggy's voice squeaked a bit as he tried to look a bit tougher and stand up to the larger Thomas. Thomas turned and almost burst into laughter at the one person who was opposing him.

"You?" Letting go of Daphne's face, he turned to face Shaggy. Though in the back of his mind he wasn't even sure why he was bothering with such a runt even his men could take out. But he had to set an example, so even if he was not a threat, he should deal with it less his men thought lesser of him. "Who are you?" He sneered, glaring annoyed at Shaggy.

"She's mine." Shaggy spoke up to the approaching Thomas. His eyes flickered off the man for a second before looking back at Thomas with a bit more confidence. Adjusting his stance, he adopted a bit more of a bolder posture. Daphne watched as she was still in the grip of one of the goons, regretting she hadn't put on her new shoes sooner, or this would have been a different situation. But what was Shaggy doing? He was never this fearless unless there was something big going on…

"Ha!" Thomas laughed, not believing the gall the scrawny man was having facing him. He was Thomas McPraide. He feared no man. "Says who?"

"I do." Responded Shaggy calmly, his voice level and absent of his usual squeaking. He had settled and not moved under the pressure of the intimidating Thomas.

"Oh yeah?" Thomas moved really close, putting his face right into Shaggy's. Hovering himself close enough to be annoying, trying to bait Shaggy to do something. Thomas not even believing the man in front of him was even a threat to him. Believing that Shaggy was only bluffing and would soon wet his pants and goes crying to mommy.

"You going to stop me?" Thomas commented, mocking clear in his voice. Shaggy smiled and pointed strait behind Thomas.

"Nope." Shaggy chirped with an unwavering calmness. "But the nice, angry looking security guy has been trying to get your attention for some time now. And he looks like he has a few friends with him who look like they want to meet you."

Thomas was slow to look, his eyes leading his head down the length of Shaggy's arm and over to where he was pointing out. Blinking once, his mind took it's time processing the scene as the security were coming closer. His eyes grew wide as his ego shrunk to the size of a pea.

"RUN!"

Thomas bellowed, nearly running Shaggy and several of his men in the process. As he ran, he looked back at the both of them and shook his fist at them.

"This isn't the last time you heard from Thomas McP…" **_THUD_**

Not looking where he went, Thomas tripped over a nearby bench. A string of curses followed as he was about to get up and continue his speech, but the security guards that had rushed past Shaggy and Daphne were getting to close for him to continue his monologue. He scrambled to get away, leaving Shaggy and Daphne alone in the area.

When the call was to retreat, the man who held Daphne just let go roughly, depositing her on the floor. Rubbing her damaged posterior she looked up in time to watch Shaggy slide to his knees, collapsing under the stress.

"Scaaa-rry…" He stuttered, looking over at her. He had brought a hand up to his heart, which was rattling around his insides like a loose firecracker. He had thought he was going to get pounded into the ground by Thomas and his men, but he wasn't going to leave Daphne like that. Looking over to her, he nodded at her.

"You ok?" His voice still wavering, trying to recover. He managed to get to his feet, and wobble over to her. Offering his hand, he helped her to her feet.

"That JERK!" Daphne growled, stomping a foot down that made her fall into Shaggy's grip more. She blushed for a second before she continued her annoyed complaint. "How dare he think I was his?!" Her yelling tapered out at the end into grumbling mutters about how if she saw him again and her heel was in place she would make sure he became very intimate with it. Preferably the pair she had steel re-enforced. Shaggy had recovered and was slowly helping her hobble to their seat where their food, abet a bit cold, was waiting for them. Also making several mental notes to not anger her, if he ever wanted to sit straight again.

Once sat, Shaggy moved to arrange her food in front of her. Still miffed, she dug into the food with a fury that Shaggy was a bit impressed with, at the same time not going to even try stealing a bite in fear she would take a bit of his hand off. They ate in silence for a bit till food was making Daphne calm down. Her mind was replaying back the scenes in trying to have found a position she could have been able to escape from it, but it was not like she was not used to being captured. She didn't have to like it though. Though part of it all was nagging her… Something Shaggy had said. She offered a glance over at him, in time to watch him look away from where he had been watching her.

_Was that a blush?_ She thought puzzled. It had almost looked like he was blushing for a second when he looked away. _Could… _She paused her thoughts and just went for the direct route. Looking back at her food, she spoke softly, but loud enough for him to hear.

"Did you mean what you said?"

She was talking to him, so he looked back. His brows furrowed as he repeated what she asked in his head, wondering what she was talking about.

"Hm?" He questioned past a vegan burger.

"Did you mean what you said?" She repeated, a bit louder. "About me being yours?" A light clicked in his head as he did remember saying that. He put down the burger and wiped off his mouth before he responded.

"You're, like' my eating buddy… Who else was here to eat with?"

Her head fell forward. Shaggy was Shaggy after all. Everything came down to food.

"So you saved me just for the food?" She felt a bit depressed, being put lower then a double decker cheese vegan burger… With fries… And the rest of the food he had stacked in front of him. He though, followed up her depressed comment with a response of his own.

"Well if the food wasn't here, then I wouldn't be able to sit down and spend time with you…"

Surprised, Daphne looked up and found that though he did mean the wording to go to her, he was speaking it more into the burger in front of himself. He was unable to get the courage to look over at her, another blush gracing the bridge of his nose. Daphne wasn't sure what to say. But he was acting to cute to not say something in response. After a second, she knew exactly what to say.

"Thank you Norville…" She felt weird saying his name, but she wanted to let him know she was being serious in what she was saying. "You were my knight in … brown… well… Bellbottoms."

This made them both start to laugh, breaking the serious moment into something a bit more familiar and comfortable for them both. As the laughter died down, an idea flashed through Shaggy's head. Dashing to the pile of stuff she had bought, Daphne watched curiously as she got a bit of an idea of what he was looking for. Pulling over a box, Shaggy got on one knee and offered the box of her new shoes to Daphne.

"For M'lady! A fair and non like' broken pair of slippers, befitting the Princess of the Mallrats." He opened the top and gave her access to the new shoes. "It is my honor to serve." He bowed his head to her.

Placing a few fingers to the side of her forehead, she tried very hard to not start laughing at his theatrics. Because he was trying so hard too.

"Princess eh?" She thought it over. "I could get used to that kind of title. But if I'm a Princess, where is my crown?"

Shock! A Princess without a crown? Shaggy looked about the piles of their stuff, both bags and food alike before he spotted something of use. Putting the shoes aside, he moved to what he had found. Added in one of her bags was a rather large and shiny bit of filler paper that was put in the bag for ascetic purposes only. With quick work, Shaggy used his talent of Origami and soon had a glittering crown of silver paper in his hands. Moving to her, he gently placed the crown upon her head.

"There… better?" He sat down beside her, awaiting her reply. Moving over and up, she planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Much."

It was said that Shaggy's face stayed blushed for hours… Maybe it wasn't so bad going to the mall.


End file.
